Famous Five solving 'Agatha Christie' type mysteries???

[Ming]

Taken from the home page:

• 2007-09-04 - Enid Blyton Mistress of Mysteries
  My heading is taken from the front cover of the October issue of Book and Magazine Collector (actually on sale at the end of August!), which contains an 11 page article by Norman Wright about the Find-Outers. The last part of August was also dominated by news of a proposed new serialised programme about the Famous Five getting together as adults to solve 'Agatha Christie' type mysteries. In my opinion this proposed series would be far more suited to Frederick Trotteville and co. than Julian Kirrin and co.! Unfortunately the majority of people simply associate the name Enid Blyton with the Famous Five and Noddy, but regular users of this website know that they are just looking at the tip of the iceberg and if they just checked under the surface they would realise how much more there is to see.

I have to agree with Tony here, that the Find-Outers would be much better for this!! Why are the Famous Five always chosen for such things? Middle-aged people, Famous Five. Descendants of original characters, Famous Five. Parodies (!), Famous Five. Not meaning to say that I dislike the Famous Five, but there are other (and much better, in my opinion!) series which could be chosen for such things. As it is, everything revolves around The Famous Five.

Find-Outers, Arnolds and Jack, and Trents and Mannerings, anyone?

[Viking Star]

Taken from the home page:

In my opinion this proposed series would be far more suited to Frederick Trotteville and co. than Julian Kirrin and co.! Unfortunately the majority of people simply associate the name Enid Blyton with the Famous Five and Noddy, but regular users of this website know that they are just looking at the tip of the iceberg and if they just checked under the surface they would realise how much more there is to see.[/list]

I have to agree with Tony here, that the Find-Outers would be much better for this!! Why are the Famous Five always chosen for such things? Middle-aged people, Famous Five. Descendants of original characters, Famous Five. Parodies (!), Famous Five. Not meaning to say that I dislike the Famous Five, but there are other (and much better, in my opinion!) series which could be chosen for such things. As it is, everything revolves around The Famous Five.

Find-Outers, Arnolds and Jack, and Trents and Mannerings, anyone?

Me please!

[Kitty]

Would much rather see this with Fatty and Co, especially if he and Bets were married! But I'm biased - I think the FF-O stories are far better books than the FF anyway. Always have.

[Susie]

Here here!
Edit: but can't they just leave things alone?

[Lucky Star]

Definitely more suited to The Find-Outers. The fixation with the Famous Five is symptomatic of the modern age's short attention span in my opinion. Delving beyond and examining Blyton's vast canon of work would be simply too much trouble for non fans therefore the TV and publishing companies will continually use and re-use that which the public is familiar with.

This situation is similar to (and slightly off topic) my favourite singer Elvis Presley. He recorded more than 900 songs yet if you go to any music shop these days all you will find are the same 40 greatest hits recycled over and over again in new packages.

Ironically, in both cases much of the best work is NOT the well known stuff.

[Tony Summerfield]

I thought overseas forumites might like to see the cover that I referred to in my News posting.

[sixret]

I think Five Find-Outers is better suited to play the role in the new serialised program.FFO books show true type of detection and deduction mysteries ala well-known detection author,Agatha Christie rather than adventure type of Famous Five.

I think the popularity of FF is contributed by the fact that children are prone to adventorous activities rather than activities that require brain to think like gathering clues and solving puzzles.As far as I know,Enid Blyton intended to write FF series until book 15 but because of the huge popularity back then,she prolonged the series to 21 books.If she wrote 21(or more) FFO,I would be happier.

Other reason,adventure type of books are relatively easier to write than detection type of books.Detection need some kind of planning beforehand.EB claimed that she rarely did any planning,just outline(characters), when she writes the books.So,I can understand why she did not write more FFO books.If one really analyse FFO series carefully,one can see that the earlier FFO books are brilliant,with twist,clues and nice wrapped-up solution(children standard) compared to much later books.Maybe she was just getting tired to plan the structure(no matter how simple) of the plot.Too long for me to write in detail.

There are so many type of mysteries out there,but the real detection mysteries with clues(ap per Golden Age Era) are very few. I hope this programme is like Midsomer Murders type of mysteries.No thriller and gory things please.

If the programmes being aired on BBC channel,I can watch them in Malaysia.

By the way,how come Book Collector magazine for October issue is already done and sold,because we are still in September???

[Anita Bensoussane]

[Kitty:] Would much rather see this with Fatty and Co, especially if he and Bets were married! But I'm biased - I think the FF-O stories are far better books than the FF anyway. Always have.

I feel the same. On the other hand, I'd be very apprehensive about what might be done to Fatty and the others in such a TV series - I don't want anything to spoil the image I have of them.

The October Book and Magazine Collector looks good - a very attractive cover. I've no idea why the October issue seems to have come out a month early though, Sixret!

Anita

[DarrellRivers]

Count me in as someone who also thinks that the five find-outers are much more interesting than the famous five. Have always thought so. Infact, I'm quite sure if we conducted a poll five find-outers vs famous five, the find-outers will win hands-down
sixret, I thought your post was spot-on

[Lenoir]

Thanks for the picture, Tony. It looks like an interesting read – not that I’m a professional collector. I wonder if it is available here (probably not). I’ll have a look in the newsagents next time I go there.

I agree the Find Outers are more suited to solving mysteries than the Five, but they aren’t famous like the FF. Most people who have heard of Enid Blyton will also know of the Famous Five, so it will be supposedly more easy to market.
I think it will be a very challenging task to write a serial like this anyway.

[Kitty]

Will definitely be buying that B&MC. Don't usually, since I collect far too many prolific authors and subjects to be a purist about 1st editions! I'm more worried about finding the space for them all. But it's very cool (and surprising!) that Mr Goon has become a cover-boy! That would make the Chief Inspector sit up. Gah!

[sixret]

Thanks Darrell.

[Moonraker]

It is quite usual for magazines to come out before the cover date. One reason is that any events planned for that month will be advertised before that date is passed.

Childrens' comics in the 70s always had a Tuesday date on the cover - they were published on the preceding Saturday!

[Lenoir]

My favourite U.K. comics (from the 1970s) were always dated the (following) Saturday on the cover, but it stated “every Monday”. So I think they were on sale on the Monday i.e. 5 days before the actual date.
(The Beano was “every Thursday”, dated Saturday, is it still going?)

[Viking Star]

American super-hero comics I used to read ( ) were often published bi-monthly (ie every two months). They always displayed the 2nd month of the two in which they were available, so that they didn't look out of date when they had been on sale for a while.

I assume it's the same case for this publication. I can't see it written down exactly anywhere in the latest issue, but a couple of indirect references suggest Book and Magazine and Collector is bi-monthly. So it is available in September and October (give or take a day or two for those who purchased it on the last day or two of August), but has an October cover date.